Bristol Temple Meads - London Paddington

[F Great Eastern]

Firstly a few questions

1) Which weekday morning services after 9 are most likely to have the full express cafe service as opposed to the new smaller ones? I used to know this down to a T but since they changed their timetable it seems that it has changed somewhat.

2) Are FGW still doing an at seat service and what complementary items do they offer? I'll be travelling along with quite a bit of valuable luggage so I don't want to leave it unattended to go to the buffet or carry it with me

3) I can get the lowest First Class Advance Price on any of the trains after 9am on the dates I'm booking, can you recommend which ones would be the least crowded in first class.

4) Finally could someone supply me with a First Class seat plan for FGW so I can pick my seat better?

 

[devon_metro]

Firstly a few questions

1) Which weekday morning services after 9 are most likely to have the full express cafe service as opposed to the new smaller ones? I used to know this down to a T but since they changed their timetable it seems that it has changed somewhat.

1000 Paddington - Bristol Temple Meads (Paignton) is your best bet. It has a travelling chef.

 

[F Great Eastern]

I'm already getting that one back a few days later, already booked it, hope it happens, every time I've been to sample travelling chef it's not been avaliable

Just querying about the other direction generally.

 

[devon_metro]

Oh, sorry mis-read your post.

The 1000 Bristol - Paddington is likely to have a full buffet as it originates from Paignton, however all others probably will do. There is only 1 TSB at the moment and I believe it serves the same stuff as the full size buffet.

AS for first class being busy, don't be silly. It will be empty.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Didn't think it would be, but haven't travelled on FGW First Class for ages.

Can anyone help with the seat plans?

 

[devon_metro]

http://cjm.fotopic.net/p37094503.html

 

[F Great Eastern]

I saw that, but some of the seats seem to have the same numbers, is there any way on fgwtickets.co.uk I can ensure I get a table of four, or a table of two for instance rather than have to be sharing with others?

 

[devon_metro]

Not really no, it tends to reserve you in coach H, but as First Class probably won't be busy, sit where you like. Thats what I normally do!

 

[googolplex]

One thing I found when booking First Advance tickets on FGW (through the ATOS Origin System on the NXEC site) was that some of the seats don't appear to be configured in the system as table seats, even though all the seats in first class do have tables.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Still don't use the NXEC site for booking, highly suspect ticket prices when trips include services not operated by National Express. Using the FGW one still as it seems to show me all avaliable tickets rather than filtering certain ones out.

 

[F Great Eastern]

The 1000 Bristol - Paddington is likely to have a full buffet as it originates from Paignton, however all others probably will do. There is only 1 TSB at the moment and I believe it serves the same stuff as the full size buffet.

Was on this today - trolley service only both for first class and normal class, although this was due to a earlier issue and seems FGW managed to find an extra train to cover the one that was originally supposed to be running this diagram.

Top marks to the CH though for being very helpful and apologetic and more than willing to offer us as many complementary items as we wanted!

 

[devon_metro]

If it was a 2+7 set, probably explains why it ran so early into locations!